Lake District, Chile
Leaving Santiago we travelled South to the Pacific Coast town of Pichelmu. There´s not much to this place from a tourist perspective, but the big attraction is the surfing. The largest wave surfed in the world last year, over 10 metres high, was located here at the point break of Los Lobos. Having only dipped my toe at surfing a couple of times previously I decided to chicken out on this one and went in instead at the beach break at Pichelmu which was more like 10cms high! Nice to go in and get wet though. The water here is quite chilly thanks to the Humboldt current flowing north from the Antarctic, making a 5mm wetsuit necessary. We also walked the 5kms along the coast to see Los Lobos, a dramatic headland with its very distinctive cliff face, sea stacks and massive breakers, no wonder, the next landfall from here is Oz !
Heading south from Pichelmu we passed through Pucon, where we were hoping to climb Volcan Villarica, an active volcano which can be climbed as a guided day trip. As we moved south the influence of German settlers became more and more apparent in the architecture and placenames. This fertile area was very under populated, so the Chilean authorities initiated a programme with the German Government to promote settlement by German immigrants in the mid 1800´s (as the environment is very similar to Germany and would be familiar to them). The weather in Pucon was very wet and windy so we continued south to Chiloe Island, where we spent the next few days relaxing and absorbing the relaxed atmosphere of this unique place. Much of Chile had reminded us of Europe, with very western architecture, culture and lifestyle, Chiloe however felt like it had been left behind (the Spanish and German influence here were minimal), maintaining a more traditional, seafaring way of life. We stayed in Castro, the capital, from where we visited a number of small fishing villages dotted around the coast. Houses are all timber built, roofed with corrugated iron and painted in vivid colours. The landscape (and weather!) reminded me of West Cork, very green with low rolling hills and a rugged coastline. The culture here is rich with legends and myths of goblins and witches, most of which don´t make good bedtime reading! The people are warm and friendly and it was nice to experience the buzz of a not too over-commercialised Christmas. We spent Christmas eve with a few German travellers who were staying at our hospidaje (guesthouse). The owner kindly handed over her kitchen for the evening for us to cook a slap up meal which we washed down with some nice Chilean red!
We retraced our steps, heading north from Chiloe, stopping to spend a relaxed Christmas day in Puerto Varas before continuing back to Pucon. The weather had improved by now and the forecast looked settled so we booked our places to climb Villarica the next day. Pucon´s setting, nestled between the Volcano and the large tree bordered Lago Villarica lake is beautiful. Its setting also makes it an ideal base for adventure sports enthusiasts. Everything is on offer in this region from skiing in the winter to mountaineering, white water rafting and mountain biking in the summer. The day of the climb dawned cold with clear blue skies, but there was an ominous looking halo cloud hanging over the summit. The guides felt conditions, though not ideal, were good enough to give it a go. Considering the poor weather for the preceeding weeks and the shakey forecast for the next day, we decided to go for it. A 30 minute minibus ride brought us to the chairlift station which we boarded, bringing us to the snowline. We geared up, strapping on our crampons and helmets before getting a tutorial in the basics of how to walk with crampons and stop a slide with an ice-axe arrest. The climb was slower than we would have liked, joining the snake of other groups heading up the mountain but the panorama opening up before us made it very enjoyable. As we reached 2200m we noticed clouds on the horizon which moved in very quickly, not unusual in Patagonia. By the time we were at 2400m it had closed in completely and we received a radio message from others who were 200m higher telling us they had turned back, as conditions were dangerously icy and the wind had intensified. We also made the decision to turn back, which was disappointing, but at the same time easy to accept as it was the only sensible one. Our weather window had passed and it rained heavily the next day (see, Ireland isn´t the only place where it rains!) so we jumped on a coach, headed across the border to San Martin de Los Andes, Argentina.
